The vast growth of information service and data processing industries has resulted in a need for computer systems to manage and store large amounts of data. As an example, financial service businesses such as banks, mutual fund companies or the like often operate large and complex data processing systems that require access to many hundreds of gigabytes or even terabytes of data. Data storage system developers have responded to these types of data storage requirements by integrating large capacity data storage systems into networks called “storage networks”.
As this name implies, a storage network is a collection of data storage systems that are networked with each other and with a number of host computer systems that operate as servers to serve data stored in the data storage systems. In a typical implementation, one or more connectivity devices, such as high speed data switches, interconnect the various data storage systems to each other and to one or more servers of the computer systems (servers) that require access to (e.g., read and/or write) the data in the data storage systems. As the servers access (e.g., read and/or write) the data, the data switches channel the data access requests (e.g., data read requests, data write requests) to the appropriate data storage systems within the storage network.
A network management station is also included in a typical data storage network. Generally, the network management station manages the servers, data switches, and data storage systems the comprise the storage network. To do so, the network management station includes management software that can remotely control, manage and configure components of the data storage network. By way of example, the management software can configure allocations of storage network resources (e.g., one or more data storage volumes) to specific hosts or groups of host computer systems (e.g., servers or other computer systems that require access to data in the storage network). Storage network resources that can be managed in this manner include, among other things, disk partitions, volume configurations, and access control mechanisms within the data storage systems and the data switches. In some storage networks, the network management station and associated management software allows a network administrator or systems manager (a person responsible for managing the storage network) to establish “zones” of related resources within the storage network.
Generally, a zone of resources within a storage network is an association, relation or grouping of resources (e.g., servers, switch channels, portions of data storage) that are arranged according to function or location. By way of example, a network administrator can use conventional vendor-supplied (i.e., manufacturer supplied) storage network management software to configure a zone of ports (data communications channels or paths) within that vendor's data switch to associate certain servers in the data storage network with certain allocations of data storage within one or more of the data storage systems in the data storage network. Thus, the network administrator might, for example, define a zone to include a server or group of servers, a dedicated channel through the data switch (via allocation of one or more ports), and an amount of data storage space in the form of one or more volumes of storage maintained within one or more of the data storage systems. An administrator might create such a zone in the storage network, for example, for each department (e.g., engineering, accounting, human resources, and the like) within a company.
A data switch (one or more) that channels requests for data between the various data storage devices and server computer systems is generally responsible for zone enforcement. In operation of a typical data switch, each port within the data switch is dedicated to transferring data to and/or from a single respective data storage system or server computer system. To create a zone, the management software causes the data switch to establish a grouping of one or more server ports (i.e., connections between the data switch and a server) with one or more data storage system ports (i.e., connections between the data switch and a data storage system) together into a zone. Generally, resources (servers, switch ports, and portions of data storage systems) within the same zone can “see” or access each other, while resources in different zones cannot access each other. As an example, a server in a first zone can access data storage in the first zone, but not data storage allocated to other zones. Thus, zoning in the context of storage networks operates as a form of access control and provides an organized mechanism of managing and associating amounts of data storage to specific computer systems.
Typically, a network administrator creates a zone of servers and associated storage resources for an intended purpose. For example, an administrator might place accounting servers and accounting data into an accounting zone, while engineering servers and engineering data storage resources might be placed into an engineering zone.
Most manufacturers of storage network equipment (data storage systems and data switching equipment to handle data access requests) provide some form of zoning capabilities within vendor-supplied management software that is specifically designed to manage devices manufactured by that vendor's data storage network equipment product line. As noted above, most manufactures implement zoning within the data switching equipment as this equipment serves as the central data transfer point to handle the transfer of data access requests between server computer systems and the data storage systems which store the data.